


Christmas in Mechanicsburg

by Wolf_the_Lizard_King



Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: A little bit of Sparkery, After Ending, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Shopping, Multi, No Plot/Plotless, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:49:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21896953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolf_the_Lizard_King/pseuds/Wolf_the_Lizard_King
Summary: After wars are won, towns are rebuilt, and peace is restored, Agatha Heterodyne is able to spend Christmas in her city with the two people most important to her.
Relationships: Agatha Heterodyne/Gilgamesh "Gil" Wulfenbach, Agatha Heterodyne/Tarvek Sturmvoraus, Agatha Heterodyne/Tarvek Sturmvoraus/Gilgamesh "Gil" Wulfenbach, Tarvek Sturmvoraus/Gilgamesh "Gil" Wulfenbach
Comments: 5
Kudos: 33





	Christmas in Mechanicsburg

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stellawind](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellawind/gifts).



> Spark Yule Exchange 2019 gift for Stellawind! I really hope you like it, and I'm sorry I only managed to post it so late at night! It's a little short, but I'm not super used to writing Girl Genius characters.

Christmas in Mechanicsburg was a cheerful, eclectic affair, Agatha was finding out. This would be her first year in the city with it not under siege from some threat or another or rebuilding from the previous attacks. This year, however, things were different. She had been free to join the hustle and bustle of the season instead of mulling over defensive strategy maps and directing repair efforts. The snow had completely blanketed the nearby mountains, but in the city itself there was simply a light dusting due to its lower altitude. Radiating out from the foothills of Castle Heterodyne, there was an abundance of colorful shop stalls, with their wares ranging from warm gingerbread trilobites and hot cocoa to mimmoth-wool sweaters dyed in every color imaginable (and some that weren’t), to small devices advertised to keep you warm even when the temperature was below the freezing point of most atmospheric gasses. 

Agatha was wandering around the town, considering the goods. Since Gil and Tarvek were planning to come into town for the season, she was hoping to get them something before they arrived. Luckily, despite the glances and subtle bows, the townspeople didn’t pay her too much heed, allowing her to observe both the people and the shops without too much excess hassle. This also gave her the chance to take note of some of the Mechanicsburg customs that didn’t quite have a proper equivalent elsewhere in Europa, by seeing them in action. For instance, when two individuals stepped under a clump of mistletoe, instead of kissing as usually expected, the people in question were expected to engage in some form of combat, ranging from regular fistfights to exchanges of insults, and in one case, a highly aggressive game of Go Fish played between a young boy and a jäger. She found herself purposely avoiding the awnings and archways festooned with mistletoe, due to the fact it was seemingly considered offensive to refuse a conflict of some sort once the situation arose. Kisses, instead of taking place beneath said plant sprigs, were instead saved for beneath ornate knots composed of stalks of lavender. Agatha accordingly bought none of the former, and several of the latter to decorate the Castle. Turner her attention beyond such trinkets, she began to decide on what would make good Christmas gifts for the loves of her life. For Gil, she had figured that he probably wanted a more reliable power source for the high-voltage projects he worked on in his spare time than the ones currently installed on Castle Wulfenbach, so she was examining some of the exceedingly overpowered heaters to see if they could be repurposed into some sort of generator. After satisfying herself that they, in fact, could be used, and were also not easy sources of third-degree burns, she bought several, assured herself they were turned off and placed them into her bag. A gift for Tarvek was harder, however, because he had previously insisted that he didn’t want anything special. This left her with the unenviable task of balancing the desire to get one of her beloveds a gift he would love, and not actively going against his wish of not receiving too much of a present. She finally settled on a ream of cloth that was strangely iridescent, and never seemed to be the same color twice that she found in a cozy store that was filled from floor to high ceiling with fabrics, many of them infused with some colorful properties that most fabric didn’t ever have. When she went to purchase the cloth, she bumped into Mamma Gkika, who had some of the same cloth for herself, and was changing the shade of her skin to match the flashes of color on the fabric. When she saw what Agatha had in her hands, she smiled, her elongated canine teeth clearly visible.

“Nize choice.”

“Oh, thanks. It’s a gift, actually.” At this, Gkika’s smile only widened.

“For dot red-haired boy uf hyours?”

“Yeah, Tarvek always likes this sort of fashion stuff, and I wanted to get him something good since we’re all finally celebrating Christmas together.”

“Hy von't keep hyu any longer den. Merry Christmas, Mistress!”

“You too!” After paying for the cloth, Agatha left the store, heading back to Castle Heterodyne. 

Despite being well-bundled in coats and gloves, she couldn’t help but sigh happily when reentering the Castle’s artificial heating. She was halfway through unwrapping herself from her outdoor garb when Krosp sauntered in, in the way cats do when they want attention but still want to appear aloof and distant. After freeing herself from the thick layers of coats and uncurling the scarf from her neck, she obliged him with a scratch on the top of his head, right between his ears.

“So,” Krosp said between purrs, “Did you get me anything?”

“I already got your Christmas gift, Krosp.” That was true, and the large cat tree that she had told the Castle to wall in until Christmas Day was proof of that.

“Holidays are just a social construct. You can get me stuff more often.” Agatha had to stop and ponder that remark, as the cat was technically correct.

“I suppose you have a point. I still didn’t get you anything though.” Krosp gave a huff of disappointment, but didn’t complain further. Agatha walked into one of the Castle’s many workshops, both Krosp and the bag of things she had bought in hand.

“Castle?”

“ **Yes mistress?** ” 

“Tools please. And if you can get around to it, some wrapping paper.”

“ **... Wrapping paper?** ” As the Castle spoke, a large panel opened next to the desk, full of all sorts of tools. Agatha opened the bag, pulling out the machines that she had picked for Gil, and selected a screwdriver to begin disassembling one of the heaters.

“Yeah, you know? For presents? I guess maybe that’s not as universal as I thought.”

“ **Ohhhh.** **The ‘paper’ bit confused me. Traditional Mechanicsburg gift wrappings are made from the skin of the city’s enemies.** ”

“Well, is there anything else we can use?” She had completely taken apart the first device, and was beginning to open up the second, humming slightly in between her words.

“ **Aw. I’m sure** **we still have some old skin wrappers around somewhere, but if you insist…** ”

“I do indeed insist.” The wires that composed the machines had all been connected together, creating a singular unit, though when it flipped on, it was still far warmer to the touch than she had hoped for. She tapped her foot on the floor, considering for a moment. She wanted to keep the power sources intact in the final product, but that would be useless if the generator was too hot to comfortably touch. She hummed louder, no longer caring about the Castle’s responses, happily letting her spark guide her to the device’s final form. Going into a state like this, she felt as if she were floating along a river of lightning, all the ideas pushing each other and herself along, filling her with euphoria as she navigated the stream of consciousness. Reality faded out, replaced by wires and lights.

When her brain returned to its normal state, the finished machine sat in front of her, as well as what was apparently Castle Heterodyne’s closest thing to true wrapping paper: a roll of metal foil, alloyed in such a way that the gold and bronze and silver colors swirled and mixed. It slid nicely around the gifts when she unrolled it from the lead pipe that the foil previously encircled. Taking a knife from the selection of tools the Castle had provided (It was decreed many generations ago that no Mechanicsburg set of tools would be complete without a good, sharp knife, and over time it had become as much of a staple as the hammers, screwdrivers and wrenches that made up other toolboxes), Agatha cut the ‘paper’, surprised how easily the blade slid through it, and even more surprised when after wrapping the first gift in its coating of foil, the sliced edges sealed themselves together, as if they had originally been forged as a single piece. She made a mental note to go back to it at a later date, in order to determine both the source and extent of the alloy’s properties. However, this was not the time for such an in-depth analysis, so she simply wrapped the other gift up. She also put tags on each of them, writing her boyfriends’ names in large, neat print. She sat back in her chair and stroked Krosp’s fur for a moment, before the Castle spoke again.

“ **Mistress?** ”

“What is it?”

“ **An airship with the Wulfenbach sigil has just docked at the Observatory Tower. I do believe it is your consorts.** ” Agatha felt a rush of excitement upon hearing this, and quickly made her way to the observatory, taking the tower’s stairs two at a time. 

When she got to the top, she saw the airship, and it’s passenger area opened up, revealing the two people in the world she wanted most to see. Gil and Tarvek stepped out of the vehicle’s basket, just in time for her to embrace them both tightly. It had been months since they had all been in one place, with all of the time they had been spending rebuilding and repairing their respective domains. Somewhat belatedly, she realized she had forgotten to put any sort of jacket on before heading out. Instead of rushing them inside, however, she simply hugged her lovers tighter, kissing them both passionately. Their body heat numbed the cold, and even if it hadn’t, their presence would more than make up for it. 

“Merry Christmas,” Agatha said, so quietly that only Tarvek and Gil could hear it.

“Merry Christmas, even though it's still a few days until Christmas--” Tarvek began, before being promptly cut off by Gil.

“Yeah, yeah. Merry Christmas. I love you two.” Gil’s voice dropped to a murmur as he said that, still a little unused to expressing that particular emotion.

“I could say the same.”


End file.
